Traveller's Notebook - Bathgate Thistle

Date – Tuesday 20^th July 2004
Venue – Bathgate
Competition – Pre-Season Challenge Match
Fixture – Bathgate Thistle v Stirling Albion
Kick Off – 7.30pm

Bathgate Thistle are a very go-ahead Junior side. They are members of the East Region Super League, competing against top clubs from Tayside, Fife and the Lothian’s. Their side has considerable ex-Albion connections. Last season they included Chris Reid, PC. Craig Feroz, Graeme Love and Paul Jack. They have now added Colin McKinnon and Barry Elliot to that list. Albion’s former long-serving physio George Cameron carries the sponge for the West Lothian side.

The locale…Btahgate no more…Not quite true although the demise of the British Leyland car plant was a major blow. Do you remember your school geography lessons about Scotland’s major industrial complexes? Bathgate, Linwood, Ravenscraig, Invergordon, Corpach et al. Only Grangemouth continues and who knows what the long term effect of that place will be on our health.

The team…See above. Colin McKinnon will be a revelation at junior level. Hopefully Chris Reid’s injury nightmare is at the end. You may remember him collapsing in a heap during a match with Albion Rovers here some 17 months ago – that spelled the end of his senior career.

The travel…Awkward. Either go all the way to Newbridge on the M9 and double back along the M8 to Bathgate, OR come of the M9 between Grangemouth and Linlithgow (Junction 4) and take the ‘scenic’ route which is more direct (A801). The ground is on the south side of Bathgate.